Victoria Hernandez of South San Antonio ISD was surprised with the KENS 5 EXCEL Award and a $2,000 check from Credit Human.
SAN ANTONIO — This week, KENS 5 stopped by Five Palms Elementary School in South San ISD to surprise fourth-grade bilingual teacher, Victoria Hernandez, with the EXCEL award, along with a $2,000 check from Credit Human.
School leaders and students say Hernandez is simply the best.
She has spent the last 17 years teaching at Five Palms and currently serves as the fourth-grade bilingual teacher and department chair.
What many may not know is that English was not her first language. She says learning a new language was the experience that helped shape her path into education.
Hernandez was adopted as a child and brought to the United States. Her adoptive father, an educator, helped her master the language. After working for H-E-B for 20 years, it was her father who encouraged her to pursue teaching.
Now, she says she has found her passion in helping students who, in many ways, remind her of herself.
“I’m truly honored. This is an excellent award that I did not expect at all,” Hernandez said. “I feel like this award actually belongs to all my students. All those students that went through my classroom. They made me who I am today. Seeing their growth, seeing their confidence, and seeing them start believing in themselves — that’s the greatest award.”
Her fourth graders say she makes learning fun and supports them every step of the way.
“She’s really fun. Every time we do math, she does really fun examples,” said student Nayli Limon.
“She’s very helpful with everything and gives us a lot of help when we need it,” said student Eyda Abundis.
Hernandez says watching her students graduate and go on to become successful adults is what has kept her in the classroom all these years.
As for the $2,000 gift, she plans to put some of it back into her classroom and invest the rest.